It was a truism that all civilizations were basically neurotic until they made contact with everybody else and found their place within the ever-changing meta-civilisation of other beings, because, until then, during the stage when they honestly believed they might be entirely alone in existence, all solo societies were possessed of both an inflated sense of their own importance and a kind of existential terror at the sheer scale and apparent emptiness of the universe.

All pulls were easy and explosive. I worked my way up very gradually so as to not aggravate my injury, and feel like I could have lifted more for my top set of 2 if I hadn't taken so many warmup sets. But overall I'm stoked I could deadlift at all.

In the interest of full disclosure, I used a belt on all sets from 425 up.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Halfway through my warmup set with 135, my right lower back cramped up badly. It was fine while I was pressing, more of a discomfort than a pain, but got progressively worse as the workout went on. I did some research when I came home and figured out it's a trigger point in my quadratus lumborum (Google that because there's no easy way to explain it). So bad news, I can barely bend over from the pain, but good news, I have located the trigger point and am currently working on releasing it. My squat and deadlift days might have to be moved to next week. I was still able to bench press without problem.

But yes, hurrah for new and exotic trigger point locations. A few months ago there was one in my traps (I think) that was holding me back on the bench press, also in a muscle group with a complicated name. That one I dealt with successfully, so I'm staying positive about this one too.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

On my heavy sets I usually get a spotter, but tell them not to touch the bar unless it starts coming back down. It works really well and I haven't had issues unracking the bar at all. This time (for some unknown reason) I asked for a hand-off, with almost disastrous consequences. The spotter kept pushing the bar toward my feet and I kept fighting him back for a good ten seconds or so. By the time I actually stabilized the bar to lower it and press, I was completely out of the groove and had let out all my air twice (to ask the guy to stop pushing on the bar). The second rep was a struggle.

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

An hour or so before the workout, I got the weirdest cramp in my lower biceps/forearm, more like a muscle spasm. My arm hurt for hours afterwards and later on I could barely straighten it out. Didn't feel very good while pressing, so the triple with 320 felt a lot heavier than it had any right to be.

Bench press 320 lbs. x 3, 305 lbs. 2s x 3

Paused bench press 275 lbs. x 4, 260 lbs. x 4

There's this groove with paused bench presses which, if I hit it correctly, the weight pops up like the bar's empty. Almost feels easier than my usual touch-n-go. If I miss it, however, even lights weights start to wobble and drift precariously over my face. Guess which happens more often.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Taking it a bit easy this week, as I will add two small-stuff workouts on my off days (back, legs and arms). I usually do cardio on these days, but a coworker wants to get back into working out, so I will take him through a couple of sessions over the next few weeks. Should be fun.